The present invention relates to the milking of dairy cattle using dairy utensils with several milking cups, wherein the milking cups are in particular cleaned or disinfected between the individual milking processes.
With the increase in globalization of agricultural markets, ever greater demands are placed on producers of milk and milk products. On the one hand, the milk has to be produced as inexpensively as possible, on the other hand, however, the high quality of the milk must be maintained. To permit the production of large quantities of milk in an agricultural business, all-automatic or semiautomatic milking plants are employed, such that a plurality of animals can be milked at moderately low personnel costs. While all-automatic milking plants, so-called milking robots, offer the possibility of severely reducing the number of personnel required for the production of milk, as in principle the complete milking operation can be run automatically, the extremely high purchase costs as well as the efforts as regards the maintenance of the all-automatic system are important viewpoints that make the introduction of all-automatic plants, in particular in small and medium-sized agricultural businesses, appear disadvantageous. Therefore, semiautomatic milking plants are operated in many businesses where certain operations during the milking process are performed manually, where in particular the placing of the milking cups at the teats of the animals is carried out manually.
The milking process itself is normally performed such that a milk flow from the teat into the milking cup is initiated by generating a certain vacuum in a milking cup; and the obtained milk is then discharged from the milking cup into a corresponding collecting line. Since the introduction of automatic and semiautomatic milking plants in agricultural businesses, many efforts have been made to ensure an operation of milking plants as efficient as possible as it is extremely important for a permanently high yield to carry out a milking operation by means of the automatic milking plant that resembles the natural sucking of the calf at the udder of the dam. That means, in the automated or semi-automated milking process, on the one hand a low degree of intervention by an operator should be necessary to thus keep the proportion of personnel expenses in an agricultural business as low as possible, on the other hand, however, a high degree of “naturalness” of the automated milking process is to be ensured. It shows that a permanently high yield of dairy cattle can normally only be ensured if a high yield of milking is achieved over the whole year as then the milk-producing cells, i.e. the alveoles, are enduringly stimulated to continuously produce milk. For this, it is normally necessary to observe certain physiological aspects, for example sufficient stimulation, appropriate pressure ratios at the teat as well as a certain degree of hygiene. Thus, already the milking process itself can determine the quantity and quality of the milk. That means, with an optimal adaptation of the mechanical milking process to the physiological conditions of the dairy cattle, permanent health of the udder can be achieved which in turn is a precondition for achieving a high yield of high-quality milk in the long run. For example, a sufficiently high degree of milking yield is an essential aspect not only for the total quantity of milk produced, but also for the quality of the milk, as in particular the germination index of the milk can be clearly reduced in the long run by an efficient milking process.
Apart from the many physiological aspects to be considered in the mechanical milking process, there are, however, also hygienic requirements decisive for the quality of the milk. For example, even in small- and medium-sized agricultural businesses, a plurality of dairy cattle is milked using the same dairy utensils. In this case, it is of particular importance to restrict or prevent the transmission of germs from one animal to another one, if possible, so that a high degree of animal health is ensured even with large live stock. For example, the legislative body in the various countries provides corresponding regulations anchored in so-called milk rules which are to ensure a corresponding standard of hygiene. The observation of these standards of hygiene, however, is not only important with respect to the compliance with the legal requirements, but in the long run also results in better animal health and thus in a higher milk yield. Therefore, a plurality of systems and methods are employed in order to clean and disinfect the milking cups between the individual milking processes, where, however, the efficiency of these devices and methods is partly very restricted in practical conditions. For example, for certain cleaning liquids, such as peracetic acid, a certain minimum application time is required, so that the desired disinfecting effect is achieved. On the other hand, a cleaning process that lasts too long can result in a clear loss of the total efficiency of the milking plant. Moreover, the contact of the cleaning liquids with the produced milk should be avoided if possible to prevent the introduction of foreign substances into the milk. In particular in semiautomatic milking plants, the efficiency and quality of the corresponding cleaning and disinfection process in particular depends on the corresponding operator of the milking plant as in such plants, for example, the quality and composition of the disinfectant and the cleaning liquids, the application time and the like can be influenced by the corresponding operator. Under such conditions, it is often difficult to maintain the conditions favorable for the milking process and the quality of the milk, or the specified legal requirements are not completely met. For example, on the European market, a cleaning procedure after individual milking processes is prescribed in which, after the removal of the milking cups, first a rinsing process with water, then an application of peracetic acid and then again a rinsing process with water must be performed. Moreover, a certain minimum application time of the peracetic acid must be observed to thus achieve the desired disinfecting effect. To realize these legal requirements, for example various cleaning systems are employed, some of which, however, have a low efficacy. For example, in large agricultural businesses, so-called passage baths are employed in which the milking cups are pulled through corresponding liquid baths after the milking process, so that milking cups are first pulled through a water bath, followed by a peracetic acid bath, and normally a water bath follows subsequently. However, in such an arrangement, the cleaning liquids themselves can be heavily contaminated, as in particular after several cleaning processes, corresponding impurities that can attach to the outer surfaces of the milking cups are introduced into the corresponding cleaning baths. The contamination of the cleaning liquids continuously increasing thereby thus can lead to a severely reduced disinfection effect or can even result in increased germ contamination. On the other hand, a frequent replacement of the cleaning liquids requires a high additional amount of work as well as a high quantity of disinfectants. In other semiautomatic milking plants, the corresponding cleaning process is performed manually, so that efficiency and duration of the corresponding cleaning process can depend on the corresponding person, the current conditions and the like. Thus, a permanently high quality and reliability of the corresponding cleaning process is possibly not ensured, in particular if there is a high work load as well as a varying degree of education of the corresponding qualified personnel.
Therefore, there is a demand, in the automated or semi-automated milking process, to improve the cleaning and disinfection, respectively, of milking cups, such that high efficiency and constant quality of the cleaning process are achieved.